Madam Speaker, different provinces have different arrangements for how social assistance is paid. I am from British Columbia where it is a little different than Ontario. However, my understanding is that in Ontario the municipalities end up being on the hook for at least a portion of income assistance or welfare, depending upon what each province calls it.
This is another example of downloading. Many levels of government have continued to offload, download or softload to the next level of government. In this case, we have a federal government that is abdicating its responsibility as the manager of the employment insurance fund and shoving it down to either the provincial or municipal levels.
What we know is that the municipalities have limited ability to raise revenue. If the government is going to increase their costs without any input from them, they will need to cut other vital services.
I would argue that if the government will take that kind of approach to fiscal management. It often talks about accountability and transparency but it needs to include those other levels of government in the discussion about the impact on their own budgets.